Shang Jianbao, the general of Jingzhou appointed by the Qing court, was afraid of the enemy like a tiger after the defeat of the Dangyang army, and did not dare to lead his troops to rescue the city of Yichang, which was besieged by the Xinghan army, resulting in the easy capture of this important town controlling the upper reaches of the Yangtze River by the Xinghan army.

After a short rest for a few days, the Xinghan army rushed to Jingzhou downstream by land and water.

In order to rescue Jingzhou, Chen Huizu, the governor of Huguang, appointed the eighty-year-old veteran Meng Yingrui as the commander, and Yue Yu, the second son of the famous general Yue Zhongqi, as the deputy general, to lead the nearly 10,000 horses that Huguang had managed to piece together to reinforce Jingzhou.

Although the number of soldiers and horses is nearly 10,000, Meng Yingrui believes that the combat effectiveness is really low, so he decided to first garrison the Shashi in the lower reaches of Jingzhou, and then go north when the Xinghan army is unable to attack the city and the people are sleepy and the horses are lacking, and the defenders of the Eight Banners of Jingzhou will attack inside and outside, so that the Xinghan army will be able to break the Xinghan army.

Chen Huizu, the governor of Huguang, agreed to Meng Yingrui's operational deployment, reported it to the imperial court, and sent another person to Jingzhou to inform the city general Shang Jianbao of Meng Yingrui's battle plan, so that Shang Jianbao could hold on to the consumption of the Xinghan thief army.

At this time, the Xinghan army had approached Jingzhou from both land and water at the same time, and the Eight Banners Naval Division stationed in Jingzhou did not dare to resist the enemy, and shrank large and small warships in the military port every day.

On 23 July, the naval division of the Xinghan Army, composed of fishing boats and merchant ships, under the command of the brigade commander and member of the Hubei Tiandihui Huanggang Renqiu Ba, took advantage of the heavy fog to quietly sail towards the Eight Banners Military Port.

After that, four fireboats were quickly set on fire, and two Qing army "Shun" sand boats and three "Guang" warships were huddled in the harbor, and fishermen who were familiar with water breathed in the water to scuttle and sink a Qing army's "big" river patrol boat.

Qiu Ba also asked people to take a dozen small fishing boats, and each boat put a drum on one side, and beat the drum at the same time in all directions of the river.

In the fog, the Qing army did not know how many ships and soldiers the Xinghan army came, but when they saw that their ships were constantly on fire, and there were war drums in all directions, they abandoned their ships and fled ashore to the city.

As a result, the Qing court's largest naval division in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River was wiped out without even seeing the shadow of the enemy, and the Xinghan army captured as many as 19 warships.

After Qiu Bada broke the Eight Banners Naval Division, he asked his subordinates to control the Qing warship to turn around and bombard Jingzhou City with the guns on the ship.

The destruction of the sailor made the Jingzhou general Shang Jianbao lose six souls of the seven souls, and he ignored military affairs every day, only knew how to burn incense and worship the Buddha, and invited the monks in the city to cast spells on the city, hoping that God could rain heavily to deal with the Xinghan thief army.

Zheng Tai, the deputy general of the Huguang Green Battalion, who retreated into Jingzhou with Shang Jianbao, learned of this, and couldn't cry or laugh, and secretly sent someone to tell Gu Shidao, the commander of the Xinghan Army, that Meng Yingrui was leading reinforcements to Jingzhou, and at the same time ordered his subordinates to pack their bags and prepare for strategic transfer.

Zhou Linwang, a member of the Communist Advancement Association and a thousand generals, suggested that the Han army should be left to help the Han army break through the city, and then the wealth of the Manchurians could be divided, so that all the soldiers would become rich people.

"Short-sighted, short-sighted!"

Zheng Tai scolded Zhou Linwang for being confused, and told the other party that the official uniforms on their bodies are the greatest wealth in the world, as long as the orders are implemented in place, they are afraid that Lord Jia will not give them glory and wealth in the future?

"If you don't do it, what kind of thief will you be......"

Others also criticized Mr. Zhou's whimsical ideas.

Zhou Linwang saw that he could not get the support of the people, so he had to prepare to evacuate, but Vice General Zheng asked them to lead troops to the gentry in the city to "ask for salary".

"You can't take the people's, you can only take the master's!"

Zheng Tai took out a list, all of them were big families in Jingzhou City, and each family had a big official.

That is, push up three generations, all traitors.

……

Meng Yingrui, who was rushing to Jingzhou on the way, didn't know that the Eight Banners Sailor had been defeated, and rushed to Shashi day and night.

Unexpectedly, not long after arriving in Shashi, he received an urgent notice from Jingzhou, saying that a Xinghan army had captured the town of Zhuanshi, an important checkpoint in the upper reaches, and hoped that General Meng could send troops to recover this place, otherwise the thieves and sailors would be able to shell Jingzhou without any worries.

"So fast that thief?"

Meng Yingrui was greatly surprised, ordered someone to get a map, knowing the importance of Zhuan City, he immediately changed the original battle plan, and led more than 5,000 people to attack Zhuan City with his deputy general Yue Yu.

As a result, when Meng Yingrui and Yue Yu led their troops to Zhuanshi Town, they were heavily bombarded by more than 20 artillery pieces of the Xinghan army, which had already been waiting in formation, and more than a dozen warships also sailed on the river to launch artillery bombardment on them.

"Ambushed, ambushed!"

The patchwork Qing army suddenly became chaotic and shouted and retreated to the rear.

"Don't retreat, those who retreat will be engaged in military law!"

The old general Meng, who had fought in the three dynasties of Kang Yongqian in his life, was furious, and personally slashed a retired soldier with his sword, so that he could stabilize his position.

At this time, there were dozens of elite soldiers of the Xinghan army wrapped in red scarves and wearing armor with long knives rushing straight to the Qing army, and the Qing soldiers could not stop them at all, and thousands of people were actually disrupted by dozens of people again.

Two more elite troops of the Xinghan army outflanked the Qing army from both flanks, and at this point, the Qing army had no possibility of gaining a foothold, and the whole line was defeated and retreated.

No matter how Meng Yingrui and Yue Yu restrained them, they couldn't stop the rout.

In the chaos, Yue Yu was killed on the spot by the Xinghan army and horse team.

Meng Yingrui's mount was hit by a musket, and after falling from his horse, he was wrapped up in a defeated pawn and ran, but he was so old that he was out of breath before he could run a hundred feet.

The children of the Meng family wanted to flee with their ancestors, but they didn't want the old general to suffer the humiliation of defeat, so they let their children and grandchildren flee for their lives, and committed suicide and martyrdom with the pistol given to him by the famous Manchurian minister Bandi.

In this battle, the Qing army was defeated, only more than 400 people were killed, but more than 4,000 were captured, and only more than 200 people fled back to Shashi.

Ge Tong, the general soldier of Wuchang who stayed in Shashi, heard that General Meng Lao and General Yue had been martyred, and after more than 5,000 soldiers and horses were wiped out, he fled in the direction of Wuchang with more than 3,000 Qing soldiers in Shashi without saying a word.

After the victory of Zhuan City, Gu Shidao, the commander of the Xinghan Army, ordered people to enter the city with the heads of Meng Yingrui and Yue Yu to persuade Shang Jianbao to surrender, and asked him to open the city and surrender immediately, so as to protect the lives of the soldiers of the Eight Banners of the city and their families.

Shang Jianbao did not see the envoys, and did not make arrangements to defend the city, but only locked himself in the general's yamen to eat fasting and chant Buddha.

Seeing this situation, Zheng Tai, the deputy general of the Huguang Green Battalion, who was guarding the outer city, directly led his troops to abandon the city and flee south with the looted wealth.

Seeing this, Jingzhou Governor Ding and other officials either fled south with Vice General Zheng, or fled into Mancheng.

All of a sudden, there were no Qing officials in the outer city!

The elements of the community in the city took the opportunity to open the city gate, so that the Xinghan army occupied the outer city without abandoning a single soldier, and then turned the artillery originally deployed against the Xinghan army on the head of the city to turn around, and continued to bombard the city.

On the 25th, the Xinghan army officially launched an attack on Mancheng.

The captured Qing army was forced by the Xinghan army to climb the city, and the siege of the city for two consecutive days led to the consumption of most of the medicine and arrows of the Eight Banners in the city.

Due to the strict discipline of the Xinghan army, after entering the city, they immediately put up a list to calm the people, and strictly forbade soldiers to disturb the people, which caused the people in the city to have a good impression of these "traitors" who wore clothes they had only seen on the stage.

Many people even gathered together to watch the Xinghan army's ongoing attack on the city from a distance, and cheered from time to time.

There are even people who send summer melons, fruits, and medicinal materials to the Xinghan Army, and there are many traitors in their ancestors.

The city is full of dangers.

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